Christopher Miller Vice President of Academic Affairs, Professor of Jain & Yoga Studies Arihanta Institute
Christopher Jain Miller is the co-founder, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Professor of Jain and Yoga Studies at Arihanta Institute. He completed his PhD in the study of Religion at the University of California, Davis and is also a Visiting Researcher at the University of Zürich's Asien-Orient-Institut and Visiting Professor at Claremont School of Theology where he co-developed and co-runs a remotely available Masters Degree Program focusing on Engaged Jain Studies. His current research focuses on Engaged Jainism and Modern Yoga, and he is the author of a number of articles and book chapters concerned with Jainism and the practice of modern yoga. Christopher is the author of Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation (Routledge 2024), as well as co-editor of the volumes Engaged Jainism: Critical and Constructive Approaches to the Study of Jain Social Engagement (SUNY 2025) and Beacons of Dharma: Spiritual Exemplars for the Modern Age (Lexington 2020).
Parveen Jain President & CEO Arihanta Institute
Parveen Jain, PhD is the founder, CEO and Chairman of Arihanta Institute, and the author of An Introduction to Jain Philosophy. He had an exciting career of over thirty years as founder and chief executive of multiple technology companies, and a senior executive role at McAfee, the cyber security company, and in 2014, he retired from active corporate life to devote his full time to philanthropic activities.
 
Parveen has always cherished philanthropy and has held leadership roles in various non-profit organizations. He has been a long-time trustee of the International Mahavira Jain Mission, where he has been deeply involved with the growth of Siddhachalam, the first Jain tīrtha outside of India, from its founding. He led the team to build the Jain Temple in the San Francisco Bay Area, has served as chairman and president of Jain Center of Northern California, and continues to be an active advisor. Previously, he was a founding director of the Sunnyvale Hindu Temple, served as a trustee of the American Foundation for the Blind, was a founding team member of the South Asian Heart Center, and served as a founding director of Stanford Center for Asian Health Research and Education (Stanford-CARE).
 
Parveen is most passionate about furthering the initiatives inspired by Ācārya Sushil Kumar in the service of Jain tradition: promoting the message of nonviolence, creating Jain educational platforms, and applying Jain principles to everyday life among the growing global Jain community, for current and future generations.
 
Cogen Bohanec Assistant Professor Arihanta Institute

Cogen Bohanec is an Assistant Professor in Sanskrit and Jain Studies at Arihanta Institute where he teaches Sanskrit language, and Jain philosophy and its applications, and Sanskrit and other languages. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Claremont School of Theology (CST), and he has taught numerous classes on South Asian Religions and Sanskrit at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley. Dr. Bohanec specializes in comparative dharma traditions, philosophy of religion, and Sanskrit language and literature, and has numerous publications in those areas. He has a PhD in “Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion” with an emphasis in Hindu Studies from GTU, and he also holds an MA in Buddhist Studies from the Institute of Buddhist Studies at GTU.

Jeffery D. Long Professor of Religion, Philosophy, and Asian Studies Elizabethtown College

Dr. Jeffery D. Long is the Carl W. Zeigler Professor of Religion, Philosophy, and Asian Studies at Elizabethtown College, in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, where he has taught since receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School in the year 2000. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of twelve books, including Hinduism in America: A Convergence of Worlds, which won the Rajinder and Jyoti Gandhi Award for Excellence in Theology, Philosophy, and Critical Reflection from the Dharma Academy of North America in 2022. His latest book is Discovering Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Thought. His work focuses primarily on the religions and philosophies of India, mainly the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist traditions, and on such themes as nonviolence, pluralism and its metaphysical foundations, the pedagogy of teaching Indic traditions in a Western context, religion and popular culture, and the concept of rebirth. In 2021, he received an award from the International Ahimsa Foundation for his efforts to promote nonviolence through scholarship. In the same year, he received the Ranck Award for Research Excellence from Elizabethtown College. He has spoken three times at the United Nations and appears in documentaries for PBS and the History Channel.

Venu Mehta Claremont School of Theology

Venu Mehta, an Assistant Professor of Jainism & Comparative Spiritualities at the Claremont School of Theology, specializes in Jainism with a primary focus on Jain regional-vernacular devotional literature, narratives, and practices. Her PhD dissertation investigates the devotion to the Jain goddess Padmāvatī among the Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains in Gujarat. Additionally, her work explores the Jain concepts such as forgiveness and non-attachment. Her recent research also delves into Jain-Hindu comparative theologies/spiritualities, particularly regarding goddess traditions. Mehta was a Fulbright Fellow (FLTA) at Indiana University, Bloomington in 2010-11. Mehta has authored essay on Anekāntavāda: The Jaina Epistemology in the volume, Constructing the Pluriverse: The Geopolitics of Knowledge, published by Duke University Press, and an essay on Jainism, Ecology and Ethics in Ecocultural Ethics: Critical Essays, published by Lexington Books. She has authored a book, Learn Gujarati, A Resource – Book for Global Gujaratis, Beginner’s Level published by Charotar University of Science and Technology: India. Mehta earned her first doctorate in Multicultural Education and Literature from Sardar Patel University, India.

Steven M. Vose University of Colorado-Denver
Steven M. Vose (PhD, South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and holder of the Bhagwan Suparshvanatha Endowed Chair in Jain Studies at the University of Colorado-Denver. A historian of Jain communities in western India from the early Islamicate period to the present, his work focuses on community formation and interactions with political powers. His first book, Reimagining Jainism in Islamic India: Jain Intellectual Culture in the Delhi Sultanate (Routledge, forthcoming), is the recipient of the Edward C. Dimock, Jr. Book Prize in the Indian Humanities, awarded by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS). His current research examines the effects of neoliberalism and globalization on transnational Jain communities.
Alba Rodríguez Juan University of California, Riverside
Alba Rodríguez is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). She graduated in psychology at the University of Valencia, Spain, and completed a master’s degree in yoga studies at Loyola Marymount University with the support of the Fulbright program. Alba has worked as a mentor, counselor, and yoga teacher in different settings, from hospitals to retreat centers. She currently works as a Teacher Assistant at the Department for the Study of Religion of her home university. She is also the International Student Affairs Officer of the Graduate Student Association (GSA), where she serves as an advocate for international graduate students. Through her life, Alba has engaged in several international projects concerning human rights, combining academic and social work. She has volunteered in different organizations, such us Psychologists Without Barriers, Venice Family Clinic, Friends of the Saharawi People, and Bona Gent, Friends with People with Intellectual Disabilities. Her current research focuses on South Asian philosophical and religious traditions, with a focus on the continuities and discontinuities between traditional and contemporary forms of Jain ethical and meditation practices.
Melanie Barbato University of Münster
Melanie Barbato is the author of Jain Approaches to Plurality: Identity as Dialogue (Brill) and the editor of Interreligious Dialogue and Diplomacy, a special issue of CrossCurrents (UNC Press). She is a Senior Lecturer in History of Christianity at the Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji, and coordinates the Network of Hinduism in Dialogue at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, UK.
Sailesh Rao Climate Healers

Dr. Sailesh Rao is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Healers, a non-profit dedicated towards healing the Earth's climate. He is an environmentalist by occupation and systems engineer by profession. He invented the protocol for transforming early analog internet connections to more robust digital connections, while accelerating their speed ten-fold. Still today, any data accessed on the internet likely passed through a device implementing this protocol.

He is also a Human, Earth and Animal Liberation (HEAL) activist, husband, dad and since 2010, a star-struck grandfather. He has promised his granddaughter, Kimaya, that the world will be largely Vegan before she turns 16 in 2026, so that people will stop eating her relatives, the animals. He has faith that humanity will transform to keep this pinky promise to Kimaya's generation, not just for ethical reasons, but also out of sheer ecological necessity. He has been championing the Vegan Rewilding solution to our global environmental, health and ethical crises since 2009.

Jonathan Dickstein Assistant Professor Arihanta Institute
Jonathan Dickstein is Assistant Professor of Jain Studies at Arihanta Institute. He received a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2022. Jonathan's areas of research include Jain Studies, religion and ecology, comparative ethics, and South Asian religions.
Ankith Desai Young Jains of America

Ankith, originally from Southern California, is an MA student at Arihanta Institute in the Engaged Jain Studies program. He earned his Bachelor's from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Political Science and Urban Planning. Ankith was drawn to engaged Jain studies when he opted to do his undergraduate research thesis in his senior year in the intersection of Jainism and social justice as it pertains to political issues. Ankith's background is in politics, having worked in the White House, the Democratic Party, and multiple politically-oriented think tanks and nonprofits. Ankith has also been involved in Young Jains of America (YJA) for many years and has served on the executive board of YJA as well. As a lifelong student of social justice, Ankith is excited to join the Compassion Day panel independent of his other involvements.

Pratik Bhansali Jain Vegan Initiative

Pratik Bhansali has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. He thinks taking a stand against any form of discrimination is something that forms basic decency. This stand should encompass all animals – humans and non-humans, and being a vegan is a mere logical consequence of this stand. He also sees the interconnections between all forms of oppression and their links with animals and their rights.

Hetali Lodaya Legal Aid of NC

Hetali Lodaya is a staff attorney at Legal Aid of NC's education justice project. She works at the intersection of civil rights law, policy, and public education work, exploring the ways we can make our public school systems work better for all. After attending her first convention in 2010, she served in various leadership positions with Young Jains of America, is currently a YJA Trustee, and has also taught Jain religious classes. She is grateful to support the work of creating spaces for Jain youth to connect and develop their values, even as her own learning journey with her faith continues.

Arpit Mehta Co-Founder & CEO of Data Intellect (DI) Director of Bioinformatics at NW Cancer Hospital New York
Arpit Mehta, an Advisory Board Member for Arihanta Institute, is CEO and Co-Founder of Data Intellect, Director of Bioinformatics at Northwell Health and a PhD candidate in computer science at Florida International University. He has over 20 publications in the field of Genomics, notably in Cancer and Covid-19 research. His research interest expands to application of Artificial intelligence in Genomics and Microbiome research.
 
Arpit is currently on the Advisory board of Young Jain Professionals (YJP) and has served on executive board of Young Jains of America(YJA), YJP and Jain Education Research Foundation (JERF). He has been a member of Jain Center of South Florida for over a decade. During JAINA and YJA conventions, Arpit has given sessions on "Jainism and Science" and is highly motivated to understand concepts of Jainism in modern perspective. His hobbies include Hiking, Cricket, Meditation and Traveling.
 
Nitin Shah Professor of Anesthesiology & Critical Care Loma Linda University

Dr. Nitin Shah is Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Loma Linda University Health and a prominent leader of the Jain community. Dr. Shah has devoted his life to serving the underprivileged worldwide. Over the past 32 years, he has organized and led hundreds of humanitarian missions across 27 countries, personally traveling to 19 of them. His work has focused on providing essential medical care to underserved populations, driven by a deep commitment to global health equity.

Shamini Jain Consciousness and Healing Initiative

Dr. Shamini Jain is a psychologist, scientist, and social profit leader. She is the Founder and CEO of the Consciousness and Healing Initiative (CHI), a nonprofit collaborative accelerator that connects scientists, health practitioners, educators, and artists to help lead humanity to heal ourselves. CHI was formed through Dr. Jain’s deep desire to bring key stakeholders together to create a coherent and effective movement to move us beyond models of “disease thinking” and “sick care,” into the study and practice of whole-person healing and societal flourishing. Dr. Jain obtained her B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior from Columbia University, and her Ph.D. from the SDSU/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, with a research focus in psychoneuroimmunology. Her award-winning research and her presentation of related topics has been featured in major media including TIME, CNN, and Good Day LA, as well as several documentaries. Her two-time award-winning book with Sounds True, Healing Ourselves: Biofield Science and the Future of Health, is available at booksellers worldwide.


Dr. Jain is a sought-after and active speaker and teacher, with audiences ranging from 20-2,000 at diverse venues including TEDx, US and international hospitals and universities, healthcare and business conferences, and wellness festivals. She is an active faculty member at leading retreat centers, including Esalen, Sivananda Ashram, Kripalu, and the Omega Institute. Dr Jain interweaves her background in science, indigenous wisdom, and vocal performance for immersive and interactive learning experiences to inspire, educate, and ignite healing change in her participants.

 

Dr. Jain is a member of the Evolutionary Leaders (EL) Circle, having been nominated to the group by EL co-founder Dr. Deepak Chopra and health pioneer and author, Dr. Larry Dossey. She also serves as a board member and scientific advisor for several nonprofit and social benefit companies. When she is not sharing her joy and passion for healing empowerment, she enjoys surfing, singing, and spending time with her wonderful family.

Nilima Sabharwal Home of Hope

Dr. Nilima Sabharwal, a distinguished figure in medicine, earned her degree in 1977 from Bangalore Medical College. She practiced as a Pathologist at Kaiser Santa Teresa (Kaiser San Jose) until retiring in 2014. In 1999, she founded Home of Hope, Inc., empowering over 100,000 disadvantaged children in India through education and vocational training. The organization relies on volunteers with minimal costs, making donations tax deductible. Married to Dr. Umesh Sabharwal, their children, Sonia and Shiv, are physicians.

 

Home of Hope (www.HOHInc.org), a California-based 501(c)3 charity, empowers disadvantaged children to become self-sustaining by partnering with schools, prioritizing education, vocational training, and mental health. Operating globally, it impacts lives in California reaching beyond India and has influenced national policies in India, in the field of mental health and mentally challenged. Symbolizing pure volunteerism, HOH operates with zero overhead costs, covered by board members.

Shailendra Palvia Long Island University

Dr. Shailendra C. Palvia is Professor Emeritus of MIS at Long Island University (LIU) Post. At LIU, he was Director of Management Information Systems program during 1997-2004. He received his Ph.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota, and B.S. in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India. He has published over 150 referenced articles in several academic journals, conference proceedings and books. As Founding Editor and Editor, he edited the Journal of IT Case and Application Reserachr (JITCAR) during 1999-2007, and again from 2014 to 2020. From 2002 to 2013 he organized and chaired eleven annual international smart-sourcing conferences (www.outsourcegloval.org) in USA, India, and South Korea. In 2012 and again in 2026, Dr. Palvia was nominated from LIU Post to receive Abraham Krasnoff Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award. He was Fullbright-Nehru Senior Research Scholar during 2016-2017. He as invited speaker to Germany, India, Italy, Russia, Singapore and Thailand. Dr. Palvia is an ardent follower of Jainism and has attended several JAINA (Federation of Jain Associations in North America) conventions and annual JAANA (Jain Adhyatmik Academy of North America) workshops organized in different cities in USA since 1990. He represented Jain religion at the Swami Vivekanand Celebration at the All Religions Harmony program organized by the Vedanta Society in New York City, NY in the last quarter of 2018. He and his wife Rajkumari donated ¼ million dollars to Georgia College and State University (GCSU), Milledgeville, GA to establish S & R Palvia Veetraag Vigyaan Professorship in Jain Studies in January 2023. He has conducted six Ahimsa Internship Youth Camps in Georgia and Virginia.